Ours looked like a big green mutated hundred legged spider with a flower on top, we enjoyed it tho. I poured it out in the front yard finally and a few days later it scared the hell out of me I actually thought it was a huge Spider lol

Guess mine wasn’t tied wrong as a spider is exactly what I thought it looked like. I hate spiders. There was a monster of a spider on the jamb of the garage door this evening right at the back of my car. It is a tight squeeze between the frame and my car. I stood there looking at it for a long time before I finally held my breath and ran. I hate spiders.

Wow, this is the oldest raw Pu Erh I’ve drank so far (second oldest was like 2001-2003 vintage), but on the other hand I find mellow ripe Pu Erhs more appealing. Dry leaf looks fascinating – long, twisted with rust-coppery texture and minimal leaf brake. You could tell by its appearance that it wasn’t handled much. With a short hot breath blowing onto leaves I definitely noticed dusty dryness with earthy and mewllow backtone and a floral hint (which was quite surprising).

I’m inexperienced with raw variants and not familiar with water temperature appropriate for brewing it but I read that lower temperature is used for younger raw Pu Erhs and close to boiling for older ones. Since I got a 6-7 gram sample of 1997 vintage I really couldn’t experiment much so I decided that I’ll use 3 grams with 100ml water on 95 Celsius. It would be nice if ESGREEN could provide brewing instrucions.

Infusions: 10, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20, 25, 30, 40, 60, 120, 180

Fifteen years is a lot for loose-leaf Pu Erh when you think about it, there’s got to be a lot dust in it so I rinsed it three times. First infusion was somewhat light half-murky caramel tone with faint aroma and heavy (but nut overpowering) acidic taste and light tobbaco finish. Second infusion seemed to awaken the leaf (maybe I should go for four rinses instead?) and brought out a deeper caramel tone wile giving away of not-so-desired wet and stale notes.

However, I did enjoy it more than first infusion since acidic profile settled a bit and made a way for some new, but faint notes to appear. Liquor is silky on tongue and the same tobbaco finish with addition of tinglinkg sensation on tongue. Third infusion is more of what I anticipated – deeper tone with hint of acid (or should I call it sour?), nice boost on tobbacco followed by just a hint of bitterness and dry finish. After few sips I also noticed that some faint notes of… clay? It reminds me of eating a stew from unglazed clay pots.
On fourth steep is where the party started, clay notes blended with those of tobbacco and it reminded me of some better Pu Erhs I’ve tasted. Fifth infusion brought out the mellowness and previous notes that seemed to be of same magnitude. At this point I noticed that the tea is starting to get hard on my stomach/liver. Suprisingly, sixth infusion brought out some floral notes while vanquishing any remnants of dust, but with less prominent tobacco note.

This is where I called it a day and let the leaves rest on cool place untill the next day. I was later advised by ESGREEN that I shouldn’t have done it. So on day two I rinsed the leaves to awaken them and steep it for 25 seconds, and this being seventh infusion it showed some floral notes binding with hints of mineral and more prominent clay profile. Next infusion brought out more balanced appearance with somewhat nutty aftertaste (this stuff has pocketful of surprises, doesn’t it?). The following four infusion (for total of twelve) were less surprising but enjoyable. This is where I felt that I’m pretty much done
with it.

A leaf with magician’s surprise arsenal.

Preparation

" Hi Alen, you did right for the steeping. Long time stored raw pu-erhs has no steeping differences with ripe pu-erh. But we do not recommend soak the tea leaves in cold water or let’s say: please don’t keep the infused tea leaves. The infused tea leaves are more like cooked foods. There will be subtle changes inside. It may be not good for health. The the flavor and taste will completely change too."

I have heard others say they cold brewed the leaf overnight with success. I usually drain the leaf and spread it out so it can air dry and reuse the next day. Usually it works well, On rare occasion the leaf doesn’t take well to drying and reuse. I have never had mold issues from overnight storage which is where I thought they were going with their advice. What ever works for you and doesn’t give you botulism. lol.

I’ve kept the same leaves in my infuser for two days and used them. Not that you should, but I’ve yet to see them go bad overnight. One time the beau did leave some green tea in an infuser for several weeks though – that was yucky!

There is a famous TV show in China recommended a diet recipe with over night pu-erh. But I really could not agree with that. No medical proof for health affection. But the flavor could change obviously. In China we called it “Shu Wei” which means “over cooked flavor”. It’s something like fresh vegetables compared with cooked vegetables.

This slightly broken, generic looking Dian Hong is very smooth and sweet with subtle blooming notes and distinctive peppery coating over the tongue.

I enjoyed three steeps (3 gr, 250 ml 95C, 3m-4m-5m) and all I can say that this is by far the most cost-effective Dian Hong I stumbled upon. It’s very smooth and gentle, lacking any harsh body notes that can be sometimes found with this tea. In first steep you get medium-full body with nice potato sweetness and blooming undertones of gardenia and trademark of Yunannese black tea – peppery coating on the tongue. In following steeps this tea develops lighter but still smooth and even sweeter body. It reminds me of ESGREEN’s broken grade Keemun, humble looking but very rich and appeasing.

Although I’m a big Yunnan black tea fan I have to give an extra credit to ESGREEN’s Keemun. I’ll be getting both soon, though.
Liu An was an interesting experience, but I fear that I might find out that I don’t really like it if I get it, making me stuck with a pound of tea.

Preparation

Day two with the same leaf. When I put the chunk in the press yesterday it sure looked like whole leaves. Today I see almost entirely small broken pieces. I steeped cup 4 for a minute and a half. The brew is darker than the first cup but no where near as dark as the 2nd and 3rd. This tastes very bland today. I have to work way to hard to catch much of anything. I have only had three hours sleep. This is not going to do. I am done with it. The rating stands from yesterday’s tasting. On to the next.

Interesting. When I had this today I did not realize it was the same one Cody had such a foul experience with. I did notice how easily the chunk separated. I used my usual western method – half the sample and 12oz water. I used 1/2oz to wake up the leaf but decided not to pour off. Added the rest of the water and steeped 1 minute. The brew was Tetley tea colored – basically looked like tea. It smelled like shu poo. The taste reminded me first of grape leaves then an old fallen tree in the woods. Then it was like an old leather jacket – not the horse tack I normally notice. It had rough edges like bark in the throat. I liked it.

The second cup at 30 seconds was darker and smoother. More refined leather and some kind of fruity and spicy notes.

Third at 30 seconds continued on even smoother and very sweet.

That’s all I had time for today. Definitely a different (and better) experience than Cody. I thought this was pretty good.

Well, I’m glad at least you had a pleasant experience. I’ll try the other half of my sample using something like your method and see if I get anything decent. Perhaps this shu just doesn’t play nice with gong fu style.

The liquor color is something I can definitely agree with. That was a huge plus for this shu, when so many others are thick and murky and black. I’m not sure I can count the second attempt as better, but it was certainly much “cleaner” in multiple ways. I’m about to post another tasting note on it.

So, going off of KS’s steeping parameters, I tried this one again. I used boiling water, the other half of my sample, filled my 16oz cast iron pot to about 12oz capacity with no rinse, a bit more than one minute duration. The liquor was an extremely clear dark brown-amber color. It felt like more of an embodiment of the first two steeps I had done when I tasted this gong fu style. But it was still really weak in flavor, and it just seemed to dissipate and left me grasping for the rest of it. Western style, the mouthfeel felt more “chalky” to me, but there was an added cooling effect that went unnoticed previously.

Yet, as I’m sipping through the pot, I keep getting a thick musty/fishy kind of taste at the bottom of each cup. This is noticeable to me in the aroma of the empty cup and the taste once the liquor has cooled. It’s not really sitting in the stomach right, either. I noticed this the first time, but didn’t comment in case it was some combination of something I ate and the tea, but it occurred this time as well. I generally have a pretty weak stomach, especially with heavy creams or chocolate and such, but teas are usually okay with me. This one not so much.

Anywho, I trust KS’s judgment and taste buds, and hopefully inconsistencies can be explained by me just getting a bad batch or that I have a completely different view of shu pu’er. But we seem to have had pretty similar opinions of past shus, so I dunno! In any case, the leaf quality, lack of depth, and negative cha qi are things I can’t get over regardless of the other odd things I came across with this shu, so I’m sticking with my rating. :/

Preparation

recently this happened to me where everyone raved about a tea and my batch sucked! something was amiss! Rotten batch,a plot,the IRS..don’t know. I sent it up to space in a weather balloon(I mean a UFO),get it….Colorado? Better pu for you. I had a Nepalese puerh style black tea tonight. The first ever they tell me. Very good!

I never noticed the musty or fishy qualities. Mine had a strong poo smell that wasn’t in the taste. Almost makes one wonder if they didn’t misslabel one of them except we describe the leaf being loosely packed the same and the light color of the first cup. I left the leaves in my press and plan to try them again today. Hopefully it keeps improving. At least mine wasn’t horrible.

I started my session with a close inspection of the dried leaves. The sample was made of one large intact chunk from the tuo, so I was happy to see fully intact leaves and minimal chunks n’ dust at the bottom of the pouch. I was about to take my pu’er pick out and divide the sample in two, but as I took the chunk out of the bag, I realized it was quite flexible. Either the tuo was very loosely compacted or the sample really loosened up on its way over the ocean.

Yet, as I was pulling intact leaves apart, I noticed a very thin, black object. Thinking perhaps it was a stem/vein I gently tugged at it and the leaves around it so as not to break anything. But then I observed it continuing up and over the other leaves and it’s sheen made it apparent it was not leaf/plant derivative. Oh boy… I pulled it out from between the leaves and was left with a two inch long black stringy object tapered in its diameter. Hmmmm, hair or string? While both are generally considered to be “okay” if found in pu’er from what I’ve read, the fact it was in a sample and also present when processing (since it was within the leaves) seems to indicate some poor quality.

Well, in either case, I was going to taste this sample (minus the questionable object) and hopefully I would enjoy it so much that the prize I discovered would be rendered moot. Yeah, that wasn’t the case.

I used half the sample with boiling water in my gaiwan. Wash was around ten seconds, the first steep was fifteen. This is probably the greatest example of incorrect first impressions. The first steep was awesome. There wasn’t much to it, but there was this interesting nuance that I’ve never tasted before in tea, especially not in shu pu’er. It lingered gently on the tongue and roof of the mouth after a sip and passed in and out of taste during a sip. It was some delicate amalgamation of sweet, nutty, woody. There were also notes of coffee and I think cocoa. While it wasn’t incredible and was weak-bodied, it seemed to suggest these flavors would be enhanced or transformed. I excitedly performed my next steep at twenty seconds…

And got nothing. Ughhh it was so disappointing. One dimensional, weak flavor, barely any aftertaste, oily mouthfeel, and a dry feeling in the throat. Worst part was that the interesting flavor completely disappeared. Okay, maybe I didn’t steep for long enough. Upped the time to half a minute for the next steep. Meh. New note of apple and a more metallic aftertaste. Tastes kind of burnt. Still quite weak. There was also a bit of a sparkling mouthfeel, which I liked, but didn’t make the steep much better.

Okay, let’s bring it to one minute. Nada. 5 minutes? Nope, just tastes burnt. I probably would have received better results if I would have used the entire sample, but still…

So what did the leaves have to say? Could they explain this disappointing session? Quite so. The “leaves” were made up of about 20% blackened stem, 75% black halves of leaves that disintegrate with slight rubbing, and 5% greenish brown leaves that practically rip from their own weight. Actually, when I attempted (and easily succeeded) to rip one of these lighter leaves, the topmost membrane of the leaf face separated from the body of the leaf. Ew.

There’s a good chance that I won’t be drinking the rest of the sample. Maybe I just got some really bad fluke, which I’m hoping for the sake of the other Esgreen tasters on here. I’m anxious to see what you all have to say.

Preparation

Hey Cody! That’s not uncommon.. though it is STILL unwanted. Much of the process in bigger or ‘mass’ producing factories use ’broom’s with thick black hairs to more the leaf around with out damaging much (could be worse with shovels although some use them).

I know it freaks you out to find this, but ‘foreign’ material is not that uncommon in all Puerh, but especially in factory made. Smaller hand made teas usually don’t have this but you could still find your usual human hair. If you find more than one or two things in a single cake then you might want to reconsider buying again.

Agreed. I’m not really freaked out by it, and it’s to be expected with the amount of processing involved. The rating isn’t based much on finding whatever it was. If the leaves would have been excellent with a taste to match, I wouldn’t have thought twice about the “hair.”

LOL. I agree. Well, I’ve learned the hard way (especially, but not limited to Pu-erh) that beautiful full leaf doesn’t equal best tea/best leaf quality. Especially with the aggressive and growing tea market. Everyone is making their own Garden plantation and making Puerh cakes.

It’s a shame for sure. And then you have all the “fakes” and counterfeit cakes being made. As far as leaf quality with this one, both the raw materials AND the processing seem to have been botched. One leaf had light brown growth/splotches on the undersurface, a good deal had holes in the leaf face, and nearly all seemed to have been burned. Size and shape were very inconsistent as well. I mean, I was expecting a blend, but I don’t see any ratio from what I got.

Preparation

So this is a backlog from ages and ages ago… I just never got around to logging my notes and the new tea samples kept rolling in soooo yeahhhh. I suppose it’s best to catch up with the old ESGREEN samples before I get around to the new ones. :) Thankfully this was a memorable tea and I wrote extensive notes on it!

Anywho, this was a pretty tasty tea. In line with the name, this tea is quite “dark,” indeed. The wet leaves are pungent, smelling of age, old books, damp moss, and rich fruits. They’re pretty mulch-like, kind of like coffee grounds. The liquor’s aroma is much like the wet leaves’ but with added buttery notes and an apple-like finish. The addition of the bamboo makes it pretty interesting. It’s like some hybrid of a shu pu’er and a medium oxidized oolong.

As far as flavor goes, this tea is well-balanced. And I’m surprised I find myself saying this, because I would think mixing aspects of green flavor spectrum and the darker aspects of the earthy and spicy flavor spectra would not mesh well. Yet, the greener qualities remained subtle enough as undertones to mold the overall flavor, without causing conflict. Overall, this tea is very sweet and rich. Earthy, peaty flavors are very strong and remain that way, more or less, throughout the eight steeps I took this tea to.

For the first half, a strong peppery taste greeted me during the first steep, and then gradually faded with each steep until it became hardly noticeable. Subtle tones of grass and vegetal qualities remained present until the fifth steep where they just seemed to have dropped off. Woody notes became apparent into the second steep in addition to smoky aromatics that snuggled in between the greens and the woods.

The fifth steep really changed it up. There was this mixture of pepper, cornmeal (I wrote “like a tortilla”) and a new, but very slight beefy flavor that churned out a pleasant steep with a sparkling texture. After this, things circled back to the beginning with sweet earthiness most pronounced, buttery pepper flavors underneath, and barky, smoky flavors bringing in the rear. A tingly spiciness was felt on the tongue.

In regards to mouthfeel, I really enjoyed this tea. For most steeps, the texture was milky smooth, but every other steep introduced a slightly different textural element. First it was an evolving bitterness, which transformed into a subtle huigan, then a cooling sensation, then the sparkling, and finally spiciness. Considering the $19/450g price, it’s a pretty great deal. I would definitely stock up if it weren’t for the horrendous shipping prices… Still, very happy I was able to taste it!

I’d love to sit and sample puerh, or in this case dark tea, with you and learn how to experience all the wonderful descriptive flavors you find in them. I love these types of tea but they tend to all taste either sheng or shu without being able to find the nuances. I can tell you if I like it or not but often can’t tell how one is that much different from another. Your reviews amaze me. Keep it up!

Haha, glad I could help! It was one of the most intriguing teas I’ve tried. Or heard of, considering “dark tea” seems to be its own category. Most of the references I consulted considered pu’er to be a category within dark tea. Originally I had thought it was the other way around.

I’d much enjoy to sip pu’er with you, KS! I like your tasting style and it gives me a different perspective. I enjoy seeing your posts about the overall flavor to help ground me when I get too caught up with the nitty gritty. But, I just love trying to pick out little things here and there and notice when they are absent or present in other, similar teas. When I first started with pu’er (and I claim to be no expert on the class of tea) I had no idea what I was supposed to be looking for. They tasted too foreign and too similar to each other. Eventually I was able to try others with certain flavor profiles so I could learn to look for them. I still feel that I have a huge amount to learn, though.

Yeah, but more to learn is what keeps us coming back. I can’t wait for your reviews of the latest batch from Esgreen. I’ll read them and then retry them myself to look for the nuances. No pressure, eh?

Nice notes. I’ve had two Liu-An here for a while. I need to properly log them. They are such weird variations of tea that it bugs my taste buds while tasting. I agree it tastes partially like shou + oolong and would add that is has some sheng bitterness and sometimes astringency. I got some herbaceous notes that made me think ‘no wonder this was used as medicine only at one point!’.

And about ‘dark tea’ or “Heicha” should be be the ‘type’ of tea and different processes like shou/sheng be under it. But in reality Puerh is the ‘evolution’ from Hei cha. Hei cha in my opinion has a much MUCH wider spectrum of processes and even results in tastes. You could easily classify a Sheng or Shou by blind tasting but Hei cha (depending region and process) would surprise you. Dividing ‘Puerh’ as a separate category makes it ‘easier’. Or better yet, Shou Puerh and Sheng Puerh are well defined categories but Heicha is not as well defined.

I sum this up with a story. A co-worker enters my office and asks, “What’s that smell?”
“Smell? What Smell?”
“It smells like old house in here.”
:)
The smoke really makes and sets this apart from the rest of the shengs I’ve tried.

I have enjoyed this sample. I think this is the fourth session and the last. It is not as full bodied as the TeaVivre versions but the browned cocoa notes that drive this are quite nice. I didn’t get up with the intention of having this. It was setting beside my kettle and just kind of pushed itself on me. Glad it did. It went well with the cinnamon crumb cake (breakfast of champions).

Just curious – anyone ever seen a Cheapster Steepster Dian Hong in a bag for lazy or gotta run days?

My wife used to make scratch coffee cake until we discovered Krusteaz cinnamon crumb cake mix at the Wal-mart. She mixed one up this evening and I slathered mine with butter. Wow! In combination with this tea I may have reached Nirvana.

I have never heard of them! Will have to look. I think my cholesterol went up just reading this, though. And after my physical today, that’s not a good thing. That’s why I’ve been drinking puerh all day! LOL!

Krusteaz cornbread is the only brand my wife and I ever agreed on. I like sweet Jiffy mix she likes the unsweet dryer types. Not sure what tea cornbread goes with but I have been hankerin for a pot of beans.

I love Dian Hong. The leaf smells malty and that is not lost in the cup. The main flavor is browned cocoa. There is a little roastiness in the background that gives it the browned note. The second cup shifts gears. The first cup flavors step back and allow straw and horse tack to come into play! These are not heavy notes like in puerh but they were definitely there. Third cup changes again – very sweet and the taste is milk chocolate with fruit notes. I really liked this one.

This has gentle Yunnan Black notes with a cocoa powder type taste to it and a Golden Buds type BANG mixed in. It’s slightly floral and fragrant as well as slightly fruity and even has a spec of sourness in there – almost like sour milk – but not enough to be disturbing. It works! The after taste that lingers contributes an oh-so-slight bit of smoke.

Here’s the first infusion on this one…
Smells like a woodsy, smoky, slightly fishy pu-erh once infused. It has a nice medium brown/orange color to it.

It has a softer earthiness to it – more of a dirt than a leaves or wood, really, but still it’s softer and more pleasant. It has a wheat-like flavor working side-by-side with it, too. There is a bit of maltiness that I’m diggin’ too! I’m liking this one more than I anticipated!

This has a slight wormy aroma like some pu-erh’s I’ve tried, thankfully, it’s on the mellower side. It has a velvety yet woodsy flavor. There is a quick sweetness in the middle of the sip that jumps in and out really quick as if it were playing “double dutch” with the woodsy flavor. There is a ‘greenness’ to this that I really like. It’s naked, it’s real, it’s original! This is pretty good!

Liu An is a special kind of tea. You can completely hate it, not have an opinion or just love it. I’m in between the last two. I can respected but not like it sometimes. Other times I actually like it.

Admittedly, the first time I tried it I thought: “Hmmmm no wonder they used it as medicine”.

A more gentle Pu-erh flavor which I appreciate and welcome – it’s also a little sweet and a tad sour – a bit woodsy and a little leafy. Overall a pretty good cuppa. It does have some grape type flavors when it gets cold and I really like those!

There was an old woman who made a China Lapsang Souchong, smoked pepper, Urfa Chili meat rub (one plain and one with brown sugar)…

then made a Earl of Anxi infused simple syrup which was ladled over a warm golden yellow cake…

followed by lemon pudding infused with cream of Earl Grey, poured and set in shot glasses… chilled…

ending with a viewing of Pixar’s, ‘BRAVE’ while sipping infusions of
sweet, smooth ripe cassia Pu-erh. (I’m like ‘The Old Woman Who Lived In The Shoe’ however, instead of too many children… I have too much tea I don’t know what to do!)

Layers of tea to cook and bake with, then a relaxing Shu Pu-erh to watch the animated Scot’s Princess fly through the forest as the brave heroic figure in my movie.

Who says you can’t enjoy such things at my age. Ach!

The little tuo cha was delicious. A small cake-like dessert Pu-erh, not earthy at all. Mild, smooth and easy. Slightly sweet.
I steeped 2 quick 30 second steeps in my Gaiwan and took a taste then in the mug they both went. A full mug of Pu-erh (which I soon repeated)! kicking back.

Sure! ‘Brave’ was fun! Here’s an odd movie note. Pixar is in the S.F. Bay Area as you know. Actually I’ve been by it in Emeryville. In the hills behind Cupertino (think Steve Jobs and Apple) there is a place that carves large wood bears (like the witch did in the movie) and there has been a sign outside for as long as I can remember that says ‘Sale, everything 50% off’ which is exactly what the witch said. I cracked up! It was like an inside joke!

Leaf Quality:
The leaves of this raw pu-erh smelled a bit mushroomy or fungal, and a bit earthy. Every leaf had downy white hairs on them. The leaves were green, white, yellow, brown, and others were black. The rinsed leaves smelled earthy, fungal, vegetal and smokey. Once brewed, they smelled more fungal and woody.

Brewed Tea:
The brewed tea smelled smokey, mossy, and had a light earthiness. The light yellow-green brew tasted floral, of mushrooms, and was mossy. I was very pleased with the first brew.Second Steeping
This brew was much more floral than the first, and exhibited less mushroom notes. However, it was just as woody and mossy as the first. Each sip had a slight earthy finish. Third Steeping
This brew was smokey, floral, and a little spicy. This cup tasted more like an aged pu-erh. Mild earthy notes crept into the last sip.Fourth Steeping
I really liked this steeping. It was extra floral and sweet. A tiny bitter nut flavor followed. The fungal notes had gone.Fifth Steeping
The steeps were still holding strong. It reminded me of the third steeping. Smokey, lightly floral, and a bit earthy.

There’s just a different taste about Sheng pu-erh’s that I like. The aged shengs taste different than many of the shou pu-erh’s. What I really liked about this was that it had surprisingly floral qualities. And that’s a very good observation of me as it’s true! However I do enjoy a nice ripe pu-erh.

The more experience you have with shengs or shu’s, the more detail you notice. I’m walking through the shu forest’s now and spending my time there. That’s how I think of it. A nice bit of shu puerh has come my way so I’m learning all I can.